


Falling Slowly

by Songbird321



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: But Not What You're Expecting..., Cookie Decorating Nonesense, F/M, Fluff, Gift Fic, Holidays, Marriage Proposal, Mistletoe, Romance, Slow Dancing, Squad Nonesense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-13 11:48:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5706559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Songbird321/pseuds/Songbird321
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“He’s so happy,” Eren said. </p>
<p>“They both are,” Mikasa replied. </p>
<p>“I’m gonna be a best man,” Eren added dreamily. Mikasa chuckled, hitting his shoulder lightly. </p>
<p>“Of course that’s what you think about,” she said. </p>
<p>Eren shrugged and turned back to watching Armin and Historia. “I’ve gotta dream about something to keep me from thinking about the day when it’s us.”</p>
<p>Mikasa froze, blinking as if that could make his words any clearer.  “What was that?”</p>
<p>“Nothing.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Slowly

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there, readers! This fic was originally written for the Eremika Secret Santa exchange in 2015, and I've decided to post it on here as well as tumblr. It's really just a fluffy, rom-com set during the holidays. So I know it's a little late for it now, but figured I'd share anyway. 
> 
> Enjoy!

_Buzz! Buzz!_

Mikasa awoke to the sound of her phone buzzing angrily on her nightstand. Groaning tiredly, the young woman dug her face deeper into her pillow, denying the fact that she had to wake up. 

_Buzz! Buzz!_

“Go away,” Mikasa mumbled, slapping weakly in the direction of her phone. Her hand dangled off the edge of the bed as she tried to go back to sleep. 

_Buzz! Buzz!_

With another groan of protest, she grabbed the phone from the nightstand and squinted at the tiny screen. 

**Eren: Good morning! I’m on my way over now!**

**Eren: Be there in five!**

**Eren: Hey, Sleeping Beauty, I’m here.**

**Eren: Mika, please open the door.**

**Eren: I’ll call you if you aren’t up in five minutes. And I’ll sing to you until you wake up.**

“Eren,” Mikasa sighed, slumping back against her pillow one last time, kissing sleep goodbye. With another sigh, the young woman threw back the covers and pushed out of bed, grabbing her glasses from the nightstand before trudging through her apartment all the way to the front door. 

She twisted the lock open, and pulled the door open. Sure enough, there he was.

“Good morning!” Eren beamed, fully dressed with two cups of coffee in hand, while she stood in the doorway with her pajamas and as unamused an expression as she could give him. “How are we doing, Sleeping Beauty?”

“Why are you here?” Mikasa asked, pushing the door open for Eren and walking back into the apartment. She heard the young man shuffle in and shut the door with a slam. She smirked at the little ‘oh’ he gave after the noise. 

“I thought we were going to spend the day together,” Eren replied, pulling off his boots and leaving them in a pile by the door before following after her. Mikasa stopped in the living room, flopping down on the couch and pulling her knees up to her chest as Eren sat down next to her. 

He offered her one of the coffees. “They call this coffee cocoa. They put hot chocolate mix into the coffee, and put an ungodly amount of whip cream on top. Becky said it was a perfect combination of sugar and caffeine. I thought you might enjoy it.”

“Who’s Becky?” Mikasa asked, accepting the cup and swirling it around a little. 

“The lady who took the order,” Eren replied with another charming smile. He leaned back against the couch, propping his elbow up on the cushions and propping his head in that hand. “The guy before me was a total jerk, so I made a point to be extra nice and used her name so she doesn’t lose her faith in humanity.”

“How chivalrous of you,” Mikasa nodded, taking a sip of the beverage. It was satisfyingly warm and pleasantly sweet, the bitter taste of the coffee just a whisper beneath the sugary taste of the hot chocolate. She closed her eyes, savoring the sweet flavor. “Oh my gosh.”

“You like it?” 

“Eren, we need to learn how to make this,” Mikasa answered, taking another sip, making sure not to drink too much. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re very welcome,” Eren replied, giving a soft chuckle. “You look very cute by the way.”

Mikasa kicked him gently, earning her another laugh from the brunette. “Shut up.” 

“I’m serious!” Eren laughed, grabbing a pillow and holding it in front of him as a shield to stave off any other attacks she might try to launch at him. “You should wear your glasses more often.”

“I will when you do,” Mikasa countered, challenging him with her eyes over the rim of the cup as she took another casual sip. Eren shook his head. “You say I look cute in mine? You look sexy in yours.” 

“Stop.” Eren’s ears flushed red as he shrugged off her compliment. But from the way the edges of his lips curved up ever so slightly, Mikasa knew he appreciated it. “So, you ready?”

“For what?”

“The day!”

“Well, I still need to take a shower and put real clothes on before I can even think about the day,” the young woman replied, pushing herself up from the couch and walking into the kitchen. Eren followed her to the fridge where Mikasa was checking the to-do list she’d drawn up for the day. The brunette wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging right where the hem of her gray t-shirt met the top of her purple pajama shorts. He rested his head on her shoulder to check the list with her, and Mikasa absently mindedly began to run her hand through his hair. 

“Lunch with your mom at noon, then cookie party with the squad at four,” Mikasa relayed. 

“If everyone gonna be at the party?” Eren asked. 

“No. Reiner’s away at his mom’s, Ymir had a work thing she couldn’t get out of, and Bertholdt’s girlfriend’s family is doing Christmas tonight, so he had to go there,” Mikasa answered. “And I’m sure they’re all totally bummed that they’ll be missing the big announcement.”

“Don’t worry, Connie’s gonna film it,” Eren said. 

“Mmm,” Mikasa bit her lip nervously. “I might have to take that job from him.” 

“We expected you to,” Eren smiled, nuzzling his head against hers. Mikasa chuckled softly, taking another sip of her coffee. “We can’t trust Connie with anything. But he’s a friendly little hobbit, so we keep him around.” The young woman laughed out loud, nearly spitting out her coffee. 

She spun herself around in her boyfriend’s arms so she could look him straight in the eye. Eren gave her a cheesy smile. 

“You know, you’re being awfully affectionate today,” Mikasa said. “And smiley. You never smile this much in the morning.”

“No I’m not. You’re just tired,” Eren shook his head, brushing her hair back behind her ears. “It’s all in your head.” Mikasa narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You’re hair’s getting longer.” Mikasa’s hand instinctively reached for lock of hair Eren had just touched, assessing it critically. “I like it.” 

The young woman smiled. She kissed Eren’s cheek. “I’m gonna go shower. You behave yourself.” He offered her a wink before letting her go get ready. 

~~~~~

When Mikasa returned, Eren was lounging on the couch, playing with her cats, Linus and Lucy, both of whom were oddly attracted to Eren. It wasn’t that her cats didn’t like people (cause they did,) but they both were just drawn to Eren and wanted to be all over him whenever he came over. 

“Ready?” the young woman asked. Eren’s attention snapped over to her, a smile lighting up his face at her presence. 

“You look beautiful,” he said, hopping up from the couch and moving over to her. 

“Thank you,” Mikasa replied, slightly taken aback by the sudden compliment. “I wanted to look nice for your mom.”

“Oh,” Eren waved her off. “You know you don’t have to do that. She already loves you.” Mikasa felt her heart beat a little faster. The slightest shade of red appeared in Eren’s cheeks. “Well… it’s true.” 

“That’s good to hear,” Mikasa replied. 

“Am I making things awkward?” Eren asked. 

“I thought I told you to behave,” Mikasa said jokingly, trying to ease things out. She wasn’t sure why such a comment had made the air awkward. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that their best friend was proposing that night. Perhaps it had nothing to do with that. Either way, here they were, staring each other down in the middle of Mikasa’s living room. 

“So,” Eren said awkwardly. “Ready?”

“Yep,” Mikasa replied, heading for the door. She pulled on her coat and boots, tying the red scarf Eren had given to her around her neck last.

“I don’t know if you need the scarf today. The weatherman didn’t predict any snow,” Eren piped up, joining her in the entryway.

“I know. But I like this scarf,” Mikasa replied, tying said scarf securely around her throat. “Red is my favorite color. And it smells like you.”

“That’s impossible. I gave it to you like a year ago,” Eren laughed. Mikasa shrugged. 

“Maybe it’s magic,” she suggested airily. 

“Maybe it is,” Eren agreed, nodding suspiciously. 

Without another word, the duo left the apartment, hands intertwined, ready to face the world. 

~~~~~

“Sasha, stop eating the crafting materials.” 

“I was not!” Sasha exclaimed, her hands hastily falling to her sides as Historia’s eyebrows raised questioningly. The blonde girl crossed her arms over her chest, and when Sasha continued to shake her head, tapped Mikasa’s shoulder to get the other young woman to copy her glare to get the truth out. Sasha pressed her lips tightly together before sighing, “You have no proof!”

“Half of the mini M&Ms are gone,” Marco pointed out as he placed a bowl of frosting on the table. Sasha glared daggers at him over her shoulder. Marco held his hands up defensively as he danced back into the kitchen to grab the plate of cookies that had just come out of the oven. 

“Hey, you can’t blame me for all of it. Connie and Eren helped,” Sasha said, earning sputters of protest from both boys. She smiled deviously as they tried to come up with an excuse. 

“It’s true. I saw them do it,” Jean chimed in, bringing in the last bowl of frosting from the kitchen as Armin carefully shimmied the cookie plate onto the table, pushing it slowly towards the center of all the sugary materials already gathered on the surface. “But who cares? What else is this night about except consuming more sugar than you’re legally supposed to?”

“I thought this was supposed to be about decorating cookies and enjoying the joyous festivities of the holiday season,” Eren volunteered, gesturing to the sweater he was wearing that was on the borderline of being considered an ugly Christmas sweater. 

“And since when is there a legal limit on sugar intake?” Marco asked in outrage, his eyebrows wrinkling together indignantly. 

“Yeah, seriously!” Sasha chimed in. 

“I was trying to make a point,” Jean replied, sinking his weight into one hip and crossing his arms. “It was supposed to be cute.”

“And it was, dear,” Annie assured him with only the tiniest hint of sarcasm, settling her hands on his arm and pressing her lips to his cheek. 

“Up, bup, bup!” Jean exclaimed, bringing a finger to her lips. “No PDA. We all signed the waver last weekend.” Annie’s mouth fell open at her boyfriend. He shrugged apologetically. 

“But Jean, you have to, you’re under the mistletoe,” Eren pointed out.

Jean looked at the ceiling blankly. “Um, no.”

Eren whisked a sprig of mistletoe out from the sleeve of his red sweater and held it jauntily above Jean and Annie. “Kiss away, kids,” the brunette said with as devilish a grin at Jean as he could manage. The fair-haired man scowled, wishing he hadn’t let Sasha and Marco convince him to add the mistletoe exception clause to his anti-PDA agreement. 

“Thanks, Jaeger,” Annie said, kissing Jean on the cheek again, ensuring there would be a red lipstick stain left on his skin to commemorate the moment. And from the red blush that lit up the fair-haired boy’s face, it was clear that he really wasn’t as mad as his crossed arms and scowl let on. 

The annual cookie baking party had become a set-in-stone tradition three years prior, when Sasha and Connie had invited the gang to their apartment to make and decorate cookies for the holidays. They’d all had such a good time, they declared it their own unofficial holiday and had been improving the tradition every year. The second year, they’d all gone back to Sasha and Connie’s and added a Secret Santa gift exchange into the mix, and this year, the torch had been passed to Jean and Annie. And even then, Jean couldn’t get his way with the PDA. 

“And by the way, we’re ready to decorate,” Marco said, clapping his hands together after sliding the last plate of cookie onto the table. Marco’s sugar cookie recipe had been chosen unanimously to be the party’s official recipe, thus, he’d always make a point of showing up at the hosting house first to get the dough started so that when everyone else arrived, all they had to do was cut out the shapes and slap them in the oven. 

“Yay! Time to make the snowman legion!” Historia declared, high fiving Mikasa as the group gathered around the table. The snowman army was another tradition that had been added last year, when Historia and Mikasa had created an army of snowman shaped cookies that were all frosted identically, the only exception being that Mikasa’s had red scarves and Historia’s had green. 

Incidentally, most of the cookies they’d cut this year were snowmen. 

“Okay, what’s everyone’s trademark going to be?” Historia asked as the group settled around the table. “I call green sweaters.”

“I’ll take green scarves, then,” Armin replied. 

“Can I do red scarves?” Eren asked, eyeing Mikasa for her approval. She nodded. 

“Of course. I’ll do green hats,” she answered with a smile that only brightened at the smile she received from Eren. 

“Then I’ll take red hats,” Annie chimed in. 

“Mine’ll have M&M trim on the hats,” Sasha added, raising her hand for emphasis. 

“I’ll do green body with a white sweater?” Jean suggested, making it a question to seek approval. “Like, reverse snowmen?”

“Ooo! Then can I do reverse red?” Connie asked. Both got approval. 

“And that leaves me with… hm, how about edible glitter belts?” Marco asked, picking up the tin of said edible glitter with a slight chuckle. “Who brought this?” 

“That was me,” Annie smirked, raising her hand slightly if not proudly. “I saw it in the store and something told me it would be put to good use at this table.”

“Um, best idea ever,” Historia said in reply. “Thank you. Now Marco’s snowmen will be the fashion forward section of the army we’ll use to distract the enemy so they won’t see us coming until we’ve captured their forts.”

“What enemies?” Connie asked, forehead wrinkling in thought. 

“The reindeer,” Jean replied, grabbing a reindeer shaped cookie and holding it up as evidence. “Every year, we spend so much more time trying to decorate the reindeer cookies cause they’re tricky as hell, so the snowmen, who are relatively easy to frost, felt left out. This is their revenge.” Connie nodded in understanding. 

“Okay. We’ve all got a trademark?” Armin asked, clapping his hands. His blue eyes scanned the room, sparkling with happiness. A chorus of yes’s met his question. “Awesome! Then start a-decorating!” 

Eren grabbed for two knives, handing one to Mikasa and keeping one for himself. 

“What a gentleman,” Mikasa muttered so only he could hear.

“I’ll be here all week,” Eren replied, sneaking her a wink before submerging his knife into a bowl of white frosting. Mikasa shook her head, hating the smile the instinctively curled on her lips as she went for the green icing. 

“Shall we get some tunes going?” Armin asked, setting down his knife suddenly right before dipping it into a bowl of frosting. 

“Tunes? You sound like my mom,” Jean replied. Armin rolled his eyes while Historia gave Jean a sharp glare. The fair-haired young man held up his hands in surrender. “Just saying. But go ahead, old man. Why don’t you throw a record on?”

“You are just so funny, I don’t even know what to say,” Armin replied, clutching one hand to his chest as he moved off to retrieve some music. 

“Armin Arlert: Sass Queen,” Annie commented, very methodically spreading white frosting on the bottom level of a snowman cookie. 

“A collection of slam poetry written by the blonde wonder himself,” Eren added, spreading white frosting much less methodically on his own cookie. 

“You’re sure to find it mildly amusing and oddly charming if you enjoyed his first album: The Daily Chronicles of an Aryan Coconut,” Marco chimed in. 

“Also check your local slam poetry provider for Jean Kirschtein’s rival album: I’m Sassy and I Know It,” Sasha continued, making eye contact with Jean. “But get ‘em while they’re hot; the sass industry is a fickle mistress.”

“Guys, guys, I appreciate that you all have that much faith in me as a poet but, I’m sorry to say, my heart is truly in basket weaving,” Jean replied apologetically. 

“Well that’s unfortunate. You could be quite successful if you gave it even a hint of effort,” Mikasa commented plainly, rubbing the side of her hand against her cheek and unintentionally smearing green frosting all across her skin. Connie snorted about as gracefully as an elephant, Sasha not much better next to him. 

“Mika, you got… something,” Historia pointed out gesturing to her own cheek. Mikasa’s eyes went wide for a second, fingers moving to investigate. 

“Here, let me,” Eren said, quickly taking hold of Mikasa’s chin and inspecting the offending frosting on her cheek. The young man’s eyes flicked in Jean’s direction for less than a second before he gently tilted Mikasa’s face towards him and ran his tongue along her cheek, licking the icing from her face. 

“Oh my gosh!” Historia giggled, hiding her laughter in her hands. Mikasa’s cheeks turned as red as the frosting as she turned wide, scandalized eyes on the brunette, who for his part smirked back at her with as devilish a grin as he could manage. Eren cocked one eyebrow, begging her to challenge him. The room fell silent, all eyes glued to the duo. Armin returned and didn’t even bother turning the music on.

With one smooth motion, Mikasa dipped her finger in the red icing bowl and, casual as can be, smeared the frosting on her lips. 

“Oh, you little devil,” Eren moaned, not even hesitating to kiss her, his hands weaving in her hair to keep her still long enough for him to get all the icing off. 

“Oh my gods, can you two not stay off of each other for five seconds?” Jean complained. 

“What? We couldn’t let the frosting go to waste,” Eren said innocently as Mikasa placed her hands firmly on Eren’s shoulders as he wound his arms around her waist and pulled her tightly against him with a wicked grin in Jean’s direction. 

“Filthy animals,” the fair-haired boy mumbled, rolling his eyes and getting back to frosting his cookie. 

“You know, a kiss is thought to be the physical representation of two people’s souls intermingling,” Marco supplied. 

“Says who?” Connie asked, wrinkling his nose. 

“Castiglione, one of the great writers and statesmen of the Renaissance,” Marco answered with a flourish of the wrist. “He was influenced by Plato.”

“Oh, well, guess we have to trust Plato,” Armin shrugged, winding his arm around Historia and blushing madly when she took the opportunity to kiss his cheek. A stain of red lipstick remained on his skin. 

“Yeah, take that Jean!” Connie said, flicking a spoonful of frosting at said boy, (which missed its target and fell on the table.) “You gotta listen to Plato!”

“Also, I don’t see why you’re so against it now. You seem perfectly fine when I kiss you in this very room every other day of the year,” Annie pointed out. Jean’s ears blazed bright red as he flinched and the cookie fell right out of his hand and cracked against the table. Annie smirked to herself as Jean’s eyes blazed right through her. 

“Oooo, looks likes Jean’s in trouble,” Eren sing-songed like a class A tattle tale. 

“Aw, stay out of it, Jaeger,” Jean grumbled, picking up the remains of his cookie and angrily shoving them into his mouth. Eren’s eyes flashed challengingly as Mikasa’s hand wrapped around his arm. 

“That’s enough,” the young woman whispered. “You two need to tone it down.” She flicked her eyes in Armin’s direction. Eren picked up on the signal and stepped down from his next round shade, instead paying a lot of attention to the cookie in his hand. 

The cookie decorating process took a good hour. An hour full of old, time hallowed inside jokes thrown around, and new ones forged out of the laughs and cookie crumbs filling Jean and Annie’s kitchen. An hour full of smiles and laughter, Christmas music sing alongs, Marco hugs, Connie puns, and Historia’s adorable tendency to create secret handshakes. 

And after that hour was over, the cookies were safely packed away, the dishes were washed, and the table was properly cleaned, the gang found themselves huddled in the living room with a rousing game of Cards Against Humanity which was to serve as the precursor to their annual Secret Santa exchange. The game was just as full of hilarity and reminders of how terrible they all were as they always were, but there was a certain tension in the air. A tension that all but one member of the room knew the source of. 

Once the game had officially ended, the gift exchange began. Just as with the game, the whole thing went smooth with only the slightest air of tension underneath it all. And of course they’d set it up so that the build wouldn’t stop until the last person.

“And last but not least,” Armin said, taking his turn as the final gift giver and pulling out a perfectly square box wrapped pristinely with shiny white and green striped paper. “For you, my dear,” he said, lunging forward on one knee to offer the box to Historia as if she were a princess. The blonde girl laughed at his antics as she accepted the box, and very carefully began to pull at the paper’s folds, trying to preserve the unwrinkled perfection of the paper. 

Eren bit his lip, his eyes skirting to the side where he met Sasha’s. The girl raised her eyebrows, a gesture Eren mirrored. He then cast his eyes over at Mikasa, who continued to watch Historia with interest, as if she had no idea what was happening. 

Historia finished pulling the paper away from the box, and addressed the cardboard cube with a perplexed expression. Armin had yet to return to his seat, kneeling on one knee in front of Historia as she peeled away the tape holding the box together. The blonde girl rifled through the tissue paper stuffed inside the box until her fingers met a smaller box held within. She pulled out the smaller box, a white cardboard box that looked a lot like earrings. 

Curiosity etched all over her face, Historia lifted the lid of the box and nearly dropped it. Her blue eyes widened like saucers. Eren peeked over and saw that Mikasa had casually pulled out her phone and was already recording. 

“Historia Reiss, from the moment I met you I knew that you were something special, someone special that was meant to be in my life,” Armin began, still down on one knee in front of her. “Of course I didn’t know then exactly how we were going to end up, but I knew that I… I had to have you in my life. I had to be close to you. And in getting close to you, I fell in love with you.” Eren felt his throat start to tighten as he watched his best friend’s face light up with a blush, and his best friend’s girlfriend swiping away tears from her eyes. “And I’m so thankful that I did cause now I know exactly how we’re supposed to end up together. I cherish every single moment I get to spend with you, and I really hope that I got this moment right. And now my heart’s starting to beat really fast and I can’t remember anything else I was gonna say. So, I’m just gonna get this done before I ruin it. Miss Historia Reiss, would you do me the honor of marrying me?”

“Yes,” Historia nodded, leaning forward and kissing him so gently, every heart in the room dropped. She slipped the box into Armin’s hand before pulling away, and held out her left hand so he could slip the ring on. 

“See Jean? This is why we don’t have anti-PDA clauses for Christmas parties,” Sasha said. She was promptly hit by a stray bow from someone’s gift, an act which Connie took major offense to and began a war of wrapping paper snowballs. Amidst the chaos, Eren snuck a glance at Mikasa, who was still trying to capture Armin and Historia on her phone. The happy couple were lost in their own world, oblivious to their friends’ shenanigans as Historia had joined Armin on the floor, the two of them collapsed shoulder to shoulder against one another. Armin was now holding Historia’s hand, the ring catching the light and glittering delicately on her finger between them, but they weren’t looking at the ring. They were looking at each other, absolutely lost in the other’s eyes. 

The smile on Armin’s face was so happy, so genuinely happy that Eren didn’t realize how contagious it was until he felt a hand touch his shoulder. That simple touch brought him back to reality, where a beaming smile of his own had subconsciously made its way onto his lips. He turned that smile on his girlfriend.

“He’s so happy,” Eren said. 

“They both are,” Mikasa replied. 

“I’m gonna be a best man,” Eren added dreamily. Mikasa chuckled, hitting his shoulder lightly. 

“Of course that’s what you think about,” she said. 

Eren shrugged and turned back to watching Armin and Historia. “I’ve gotta dream about something to keep me from thinking about the day when it’s us.”

Mikasa froze, blinking as if that could make his words any clearer. “What was that?”

“Nothing.”

Mikasa pressed her lips together tightly, but said nothing else.

~~~~~

“Talk about a white Christmas.”

Mikasa laughed as she tightened her red scarf around her throat to shield herself from the wind. The world outside the door looked like a snow globe, thick flakes of pristine white snow swirling in the air and coating the ground in a fluffy blanket of white. It was like they’d walked out of Jean and Annie’s apartment and into a Hallmark holiday movie. 

“Well, it’s hardly snowed all month. Mother Nature has some catching up to do,” the young woman replied, securing her purse on her shoulder before shoving her hands securely in her pockets, preparing to brave the storm. 

“But couldn’t she have waited until we were safely at home?” Eren asked. His mouth was still hanging open in awe of the snow, his eyes watching in wonder as the fluffy crystals fell. 

“Maybe. But this will be more of an adventure, won’t it?” she asked, a smile edging up on one side of her mouth. Eren nodded his head, still mesmerized by the world beyond the windows. He had yet to actually wrap his own scarf around his neck, and Mikasa took the initiative to do it for him. Eren seemed to snap back to her as if from a dream at her touch. He watched her fingers pull at the soft blue fabric with just as much wonder as he watched the snow. That simple glance had butterflies fluttering in the young woman’s stomach as she pulled her hands away.

“Shall we?” Eren offered her his elbow, and Mikasa gladly linked her arm through his. 

“We shall,” she smiled, pushing the glass doors open and stepping outside the warm lobby into the world. 

The snowy December night was not nearly as cold as Mikasa had been expecting. There was only a whisper of wind, blowing as gentle as could be, just enough to swirl the snowflakes around. Not a soul moved anywhere on the street save for them, the young couple on their way home after a night of fun. It was much more peaceful than either one had been expecting. It truly felt like they were trapped in their own personal snow globe. 

Arms linked tightly together, Eren and Mikasa set off down the street, Mikasa’s heels clicking against the wet pavement. Eren smiled over at his girlfriend. The snow caught in her hair like perfect polka dots of white against the smooth, inky background. The smile stretched wider on Eren’s lips as he instinctively reached out and brushed her hair behind her ear, fingers threading through the snow-spotted tresses without even meaning to. His hand lingered against the curve of her face. 

Mikasa hated that it made her blush. That even after all this time (they’d been together a little over two years,) the simplest tilt of Eren’s head or the slightest smile could send her blushing like a madwoman. Especially when the light caught in his eyes like that…

“Mika?” Eren asked, his voice breaking through her thoughts. Without thinking, Mikasa grabbed Eren’s scarf and pulled him close, crashing her lips against his soft as the snow falling in her hair. Eren caught her head, fingers intertwining in her hair and thumbs cradling her wind-bitten cheeks as he kissed her back. She tasted like sugar and peppermint. Refreshingly sweet. 

And all too fleeting. Mikasa retreated before Eren’s could fully comprehend the situation, and a small whine escaped from his throat against his volition. 

“What was that for?” he managed in bewilderment.

“Just because,” Mikasa shrugged, turning back to the sidewalk and walking ahead. Eren followed after her, eyebrows arching curiously. 

“You sure you’re alright?” the young man asked, looping his arm around his girlfriend’s waist. An amused smile was spread across his lips, and his cheeks were a red too bright to be from the cold. 

“What? I’m not allowed to kiss you without a reason?” Mikasa asked, blinking snow-speckled eyelashes up at him. Eren’s lips quirked to the side.

“Not without mistletoe, you’re not,” he said. Mikasa laughed out loud, resting her head against her boyfriend’s shoulder. “You heard Jean all day. ‘No PDA! No kissing! No one can have any fun!’” Mikasa laughed and pinched his cheek good naturedly, earning her another whine from the brunette.

“Hey. Stop thinking about that. You know Jean just likes to get your goat,” she said gently, straightening the collar on Eren’s coat as they walked along. 

“Yeah, well, his goat’s pretty easy to get, too,” Eren pouted, sticking his lower lip out for dramatic effect. “I’m not the difficult one.”

Mikasa shrugged. “No, you aren’t the _only_ difficult one, but I think Annie and I are getting better at keeping you two in line.” Eren smiled and pulled Mikasa closer to him, her head falling on his shoulder again. 

“Yes, I think you’re both getting much more creative at handling our wit and sass,” he answered. “Also, now that there is no anti-PDA clause present, feel free to do that again when we get home, mistletoe or not.”

“Oh, I was planning to,” Mikasa replied with a wink for good measure. The two fell into another round of laughter as they rounded the corner onto Mikasa’s street, the apartment complex appearing before them as if by magic. Eren punched in the code at the front door, ushering Mikasa into the warmly lit lobby.

As they pushed through the doors, another couple was leaving, laughing merrily and practically hanging on one another. Mikasa caught the sight of an unusually bright sparkle coming from the woman’s left hand.

“I think they just got engaged too,” she whispered, trailing the couple with her eyes as they disappeared into the snow. 

“Really?” Eren asked. “Guess today must be pretty popular for that kinda thing.”

“I guess so,” Mikasa repeated, smiling to herself at the memory of Historia’s face when she’d opened Armin’s ring. She turned to Eren, hoping to relive that moment together, but instead she found her boyfriend lost in some distant thought. His eyes were staring off at the floor, the green irises clouded with disappointment. 

“Eren,” Mikasa said softly, worry gnawing at her. “You’ve been acting strange all day…”

“No I haven’t…!”

“What is it?” Mikasa cut him off. She grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze, eyes searching his face. Eren pressed his lips together tight, averting his eyes from Mikasa’s gaze. “Eren, please. I know you better than you think. I know something’s bothering you. Please let me help you through it.” Eren sighed. His eyes skirted around the room. 

“Come here,” he said, pulling Mikasa by their held hands towards the bench next to the elevators. The duo sat down, hands still intertwined. Eren took a breath and bit his lip, his eyes gazing off into the distance; he was putting his words together. 

“Mikasa?” he asked quietly, eyes still focused on the point where the wall met the ceiling. 

“Yeah?” the young woman prompted softly. 

“You… do want to get married, don’t you?” Eren asked, still staring up at the ceiling, scared to look at her. “Like, not right now or anything but…” He sighed, rubbing his free hand in his hair. “I don’t know. Maybe? That’s… you do want that, right?”

“Eren, that’s all I want.”

The brunette’s head snapped to the side, eyes blowing wide. He found Mikasa’s eyes waiting for him, open and honest, as if what she’d just said had been as simple as giving the time or the weather. “Then why haven’t we talked about it since last year?” he asked. 

“I didn’t think we had to.” Mikasa switched positions, shifting to face him better, their knees touching lightly. “I was ready only a little while after I met you, something about you just… I just knew. But you weren’t ready then, and you weren’t ready when we talked about it last year. So I stopped bringing it up because I didn’t want to force you into something you didn’t want, or couldn’t handle.” Eren nodded, looking away, almost wounded. “Yet.” Eren perked back up to find that Mikasa was smiling at him. “I don’t know about you, but I think it’s pretty clear that this is the last relationship either of us are ever going to be in, but that doesn’t mean we have to rush to make that official. I know that you’ll tell me when you’re ready to make that commitment. Or you’ll just make the move without telling me. Either way, you know I’m ready whenever you are.”

Eren blinked, lips slightly parted, staring into warm gray eyes that looked silver from the lights overhead. “Really?” he asked incredulously. Mikasa laughed softly, lightly brushing Eren’s hair behind his ear, her fingertips just grazing his forehead and sending shivers down his spine. 

“You’re a bit of a dork,” she said, smiling. “But yes, really. Just… take your time. I want you to be totally and completely sure that this is what you want, and even if I have to wait till we’re 50, so be it. As long as we’re together, we’ve got all the time in the world.”

“Even if we’re 50?” Eren questioned. 

Mikasa rolled her eyes. “Okay, I’d rather it not be when we’re 50, but I mean, if that’s what you want, I guess I can’t stop you.” 

“You could just propose to me?” Eren suggested, shrugging. 

“Very true,” Mikasa nodded, biting her lip as she looked off at the ceiling, gears turning in her mind. 

“No, wait, don’t do that! No scheming!” Eren exclaimed, grabbing her shoulder to bring her back down from space. The young woman laughed, the musical sounds echoing slightly through the lobby. “I want to be the one to propose, and I promise I’ll do it before we’re 50!”

“Pinkie promise?” the young woman asked, offering her pinkie finger. Eren grinned, wrapping his own pinkie around hers with a smile.

“Pinkie promise,” he repeated. Sucking in a deep breath, Eren pushed himself to his feet and offered a hand out to help Mikasa up. “Now, let’s go upstairs. I was promised cuddles.” 

“That you were,” Mikasa sighed, pulling Eren by the hand towards the elevator. 

~~~~~

Two hours and two classic Christmas specials later, Eren and Mikasa were curled up together on the couch, cuddling as promised. Two empty mugs of hot chocolate sat on the coffee table with an empty bowl of popcorn, and two cats were staring jealously as their mom snuggled with someone else on their couch.

“What do you want to watch next?” Mikasa asked, lolling her head to the side so it rested on Eren’s chest. 

“I have a better idea,” the brunette replied, carefully moving his girlfriend away so he could hop off the couch. Mikasa watched suspiciously as Eren trotted over to the stereo and hooked up his iPod. He turned a charming smile back at Mikasa, only made cuter by the fact that he was wearing an old green t-shirt and green and red plaid pajama pants. 

“Want to dance?” he asked, unfolding his arm slowly until his hand was fully extended, hers for the taking. 

“You sly devil.” Mikasa shook her head, but slowly pushed herself up from the couch and stepped to Eren, offering her hand to him. The young man made a show of taking her hand, falling back into a sweeping bow, taking her hand in his fingers and pressing the softest kiss to the back. Mikasa’s heart fluttered in her chest at the gleam in his eyes as Eren as he straightened up and hit the play button on the stereo. 

_Falling Slowly._

“Eren…”

“It’s our song,” Eren gasped quietly with an over exaggerated smile, raising his eyebrows high. Mikasa smiled, unable to save herself from the way her heart jumped yet again at the soft, tender way he’d said those three simple words as if he had no idea what song was about to play. It felt like there were bubbles floating in her chest, popping with little explosions of blissful joy with each millisecond of the song that had brought them together. Not even a minute after literally running into her on the street while they were both on their way to work, this song had played on Eren’s iPod, and he’d chased Mikasa down the street and asked her for her number. Their first date had been two nights later. 

Even one single chord of the song could bring them back to that day, put them back into that exact moment, as if the melody itself was inscribed on their hearts. As the lyrics picked up, Eren sang along, his hand caressing the side of Mikasa’s face as his eyes locked with hers, green absorbed in gray. 

_I don’t know you, but I want you all the more for that._

As Eren’s fingers slowly made their way down the contour of her face, Mikasa smiled, joining him on the harmony. 

_Words fall through me, and always fool me, and I can’t react._

Eren’s hand left Mikasa’s face to grasp her hand like a prince lifting the hand of his princess to kiss it. But his lips never graced her skin, instead he maneuvered their hands to touch his palm to hers and interlace their fingers together. 

_And games that never amount to more than they’re meant will play themselves out._

Mikasa pulled her hand from Eren’s and threw her arms around Eren’s neck. The young man’s arms encircled her waist, hands resting on the small of her back, pulling her closer to him so that he could feel her breath against his collarbone. Mikasa laid her head against Eren’s chest, his heartbeat echoing in her ear in time to the music as they sang on, swaying in time with the melody. 

_Take this sinking boat, and point it home, we’ve still got time. Raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice, you’ve made it now._

The lyrics paused, and Mikasa pulled her head back, gray eyes meeting green again. The girl was tempted to lean forward and kiss Eren, kiss him like they were the only two people on a planet about to die. But she didn’t. 

_Falling slowly. Eyes that know me. And I can’t go back. And words that take me, and erase me, and I’m painted black._

Without feeling it, a smile crept up both of their lips as memories of the day they met played across their minds like an old film strip, each scene marked here and there with spots of faded memory. But what mattered most remained in tact: the way it felt to finally find that person the universe could only have made for you, whose eyes saw right past all of your walls without trying and already knew you before you said ‘hello,’ and the way that recognition made the eyes light up like stars. 

_Well you have suffered enough, and warred with yourself. It’s time that you’ve won._

Eren bit his lip, nervous as he’d been on that first day. As he leaned closer to her, Mikasa pulled him by the elbows into a waltz around the coffee table, forcing one of his hands into hers while the other remained on the small of her back so that they were dancing like a couple straight out of a fairytale. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three…

_Take this sinking boat, and point it home, we’ve still got time. Raise your hopeful voice. You have a choice. You’ve made it now._

They stopped circling the coffee table, freezing in one space and spinning in a slow circle, their own personal orbit. 

_Falling slowly. Sing your melody, I’ll sing it loud._

The last few oh’s disappeared in the air along with the space between them as their lips fell together by a strange magnetism neither one would ever be able to explain. Mikasa’s hands clasped Eren’s biceps as his grip tightened around her back. The song continued to strum away in the world behind them. 

“Take it all,” Eren whispered against her lips, attempting to finish the song before crashing back into her lips. 

“I played the cards too late,” Mikasa added breathlessly as she pulled away for just a moment. 

“Now it’s gone,” Eren smiled into the kiss, his hands moving to grasp her face. 

“Two, three, four,” Mikasa whispered, almost giggling with bliss as her hands closed around his warm fingers against her cheeks. The final melody filled the air. The couple remained frozen in that moment, lips pressed together with a sweet desperation that had yet to disappear even after all the time they’d been together. It felt like they were back on that busy street, morning sunlight pouring down all around them as people bustled past, not even noticing the two people falling in love before their eyes. 

The music changed, something Fall Out Boy emitting from the stereo. 

“That’s not dancing music,” Eren said, scrunching up his nose in distaste before letting his hands fall away. The moment gone, Mikasa took a deep breath, and attempted to rest her beating heart. It wasn’t working so well with Eren still so close, and still smiling like a fool. 

“Hey. There’s something I’d like to give you.” 

Mikasa blinked, caught off guard by the suddenly serious tone in Eren’s voice. She nodded simply in reply, allowing Eren to take her hand and lead her to the couch. The duo sat down, turning to face one another. Eren seemed terribly nervous all of the sudden, tapping one foot restlessly against the floor. His hands kept clenching and unclenching against his legs as he took a deep breath. Mikasa felt anxiety take root in her chest, fueled by fear of the unknown. 

“Okay, so,” Eren began, meeting Mikasa’s eyes. “Ever since Armin told me that he was going to propose today I… I started to think about us.” Mikasa’s heart rate soared, the pit in her stomach growing larger, but she kept her face impassive as she nodded. “And… and I know we talked about not getting married yet. But… something about knowing that our best friends are engaged just, it’s just getting to me. I don’t know why.” Eren’s eyes kept leaving hers, looking around nervously, as if his words embarrassed him. “But so I, uh, I wanted to…” 

The brunette reached under one of the couch cushions and pulled out a small, black velvet box. Mikasa felt the breath leave her lungs and her eyes widen, breaking her emotionless guise. “It’s not an actual ring,” Eren said quickly, opening the box to reveal a simple ring composed of two intertwining circles, one of silver and one of small crystals. “Well, I guess it is an actual ring, but not _the_ ring. It’s a uh, a promise ring. A physical reminder of my promise that one day, this will be _the_ ring, and I will be that guy waiting for you at the end of the aisle who will make it his life mission to make you the happiest girl in the world.” 

“Eren,” Mikasa breathed, her eyes lifting from the ring to her boyfriend’s gleaming emerald eyes. 

“Merry Christmas,” the brunette replied with a smile so insecure and terrified that Mikasa felt she had no choice but to throw her arms around him and squeeze him tight. 

“You are the sweetest man,” she whispered in his ear, closing her eyes as she embraced him, enjoying his presence with her heart, not her eyes. “You didn’t have to promise me anything.”

“But I did,” Eren replied earnestly, holding her closer. “I needed to. If not for you, then for me. Just to know that… I won’t lose you.”

Mikasa pulled back and carded her fingers through Eren’s hair, her eyes smiling at his nervous face. “You’ll never lose me.” Planting a kiss to his temple, Mikasa broke away from the embrace and jumped up from the couch. Eren watched her go, eyebrows wrinkling in curiosity. 

“Mika, whatch’a doin’?” he asked in a singsong voice. Mikasa stopped at the Christmas tree they’d set up and decorated together, picking up a present wrapped in shiny red paper. She held it out to Eren as she returned to the couch, curling up next to Eren again. The brunette took the gift, the curiosity never leaving his eyes. “What’s this?”

“My response to your promise,” Mikasa replied, gesturing for him to open it. Eren gave her one more suspicious glance before carefully tearing the paper back. 

“Huh.” Abandoning the paper to the floor, Eren’s mouth hung open at the sight of the shiny cover of the brown leather scrapbook, a picture of the two of them sitting on the steps of Eren’s mom’s house held in the center. “What is this?” 

“Open it,” Mikasa prompted. Eren did as he was told. There was a piece of paper taped to the first page, its lines filled with Mikasa’s smooth, delicate handwriting. Eren began to read:

_May 13, 2013.  
I have a feeling today is going to be a day I will want to look back on in the future, so I’m going to fold in the corner of this page, and put a star on the top, so that when I look back in the future, this will be one of the days I look at first.   
It started off like any normal Saturday. I got up and went to work down at the coffee shop. However, the trains were running late, so thus I was running late. I was hurrying down the street, not even paying attention to where I was going and all of the sudden, I run into this guy. Like, full on ran into him. And he wasn’t just any guy, of course, I’m not that lucky. No, he was a cute guy, with the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen in my entire life thus far.   
So, I run full force into this guy, we both kinda tumble to the ground, my purse falls, his bag falls, we all fall down. All that embarrassment. So I immediately start apologizing. But what does this guy do? He asks if I’m alright first. Then, he helps me to my feet, helps me find all my belongings, and then asks if I’m okay a second time. He never once blamed me for the collision, taking full blame on himself (he said so at least ten times.) He was honestly such a gentleman about it, and I really wasn’t expecting that.   
And that was that. We ran into each other, fell over, picked ourselves back up, exchanged pleasantries, and then we both moved on. Turns out he was late for work too. So, I go on ahead like nothing ever happened.   
But one block later, I hear a voice echoing down the street. Curious, I turn around, and there he is, the green-eyes guy, chasing me down the street. Literally chasing me down the street cause he didn’t get my name when we crashed. When he caught up to me, we exchanged names and numbers fast as we could, cause you know, we were both running late. He told me his name is Eren. Eren Jaeger. I told him that was a nice name. He told me my name was beautiful. Then he told me he’d call me, and ran back off in the other direction.   
That’s not it though.   
About half an hour before my shift ended, he walked in with a coworker, on a coffee run. Since we’d already exchanged phone numbers, I didn’t even need to sneak it on the cup. Instead, I wrote date plans (date, time, place, my address) which he then snapped a picture of and texted to me once he left, (he also showed me a picture of that cup sitting on his desk at home, where I think it’ll be sitting for a while, if things go well.) So, guess this story is extending at least until next Thursday (cause guess who’s off work Friday?) I don’t know. Maybe something will happen here? We’ll see. I hope it does. Fingers crossed. _

“You’d asked about my diary entry on the day we met.” I thought you might like to actually read it,” she said. 

Eren smiled. “Thank you.” He began to leaf through the pages. “Hey, this is from when we went to the beach with Armin and Historia! Man, that came out nice.” He ran his finger along the edge of the photo of the four of them, all in navy blue shirts and khaki shorts (Historia had thought it’d be cute for them to all match like a family, so they had.) “And this one’s from Halloween!” Eren laughed out loud at the picture of him and Jean imitating the final fight in Harry Potter, only dressed as Batman and Captain America respectively. “And this one!” He chuckled again at the picture of Armin, Historia, Connie, Sasha, Bertholdt, and Annie as the cast of friends, (it had been Connie’s idea, and Annie had decided to not be a superhero with Jean as they had for the past two years.)

“These are amazing,” Eren beamed over at Mikasa, who was practically radiating with joy at his reaction. Eren continued to flip through the pages, taking in every picture. A snapshot of the two of them at the coffee shop Mikasa worked at, smiling happily. A picture of the squad at poker night (or, more fittingly, the night they’d all dressed up super fancy, played Cards Against Humanity for hours, and drank way too much.) Eren with a whipped cream mustache. Mikasa and Annie dressed up as Eren and Jean and pretending to strangle each other. Eren and Armin jumping in the waves at the ocean. A random picture of Mikasa cooking that Eren had taken and sent to her out of the blue. A selfie of the two of them lying on the couch. A picture of Eren sick in bed with both of Mikasa’s cats curled up next to him. The two of them swinging on a swing set in the local park. The two of them at Eren’s cousin’s wedding. The two of them in the car, wearing sunglasses and trying to look cool. 

“Mikasa…” Eren breathed. His fingers lingered over the current page. “This is so amazing.” His eyes glanced up to meet hers. “I… I don’t even know what to say.”

“I didn’t either so, voila,” Mikasa replied, gesturing to the book. “They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. So there’s my answer.” Eren leaned over and pressed his lips against hers. 

“Thank you,” he breathed after the kiss, stealing her breath away with his lips. “This is the best gift I’ve ever received.”

“And you’re the best gift _I’ve_ ever received,” Mikasa replied. “And I think that’s what the book is trying to say in so many words.” Eren beamed, kissing her again. His lips were warm against hers, sweet as the cocoa they’d been drinking and passionate as fire. Kissing Eren always felt like she was dancing with fire, tapping into some hidden reserve of desire that was both tender and soft as a spring rain and white hot as the center of a flame. It felt as if he treasured every single kiss and made it the best he’d ever had, in case another one didn’t follow. If it was true that a kiss was the physical meeting of two souls, then Mikasa couldn’t say anyone could stir her soul quite like Eren. Maybe that’s how she’d known so early on that it would be him, and only him, that she would want to stand by forever. 

But that was a thought for another time. Right now, she had other things to think about. Mikasa’s arms wound around Eren’s neck, fingers winding up in the soft ends of his hair. Eren’s hands framed her face, warn against her skin, holding the two of them together in another suspended moment of time. 

Or at least he held them together until Lucy hopped right up into Eren’s lap and began to rub her face against the young man’s chin, splitting the kiss unapologetically. 

Eren cracked up, dropping his head against Mikasa’s shoulder. “Darling, I love your cats.” 

“Well good, cause they sure do seem to love you too,” Mikasa replied, pecking Eren’s cheek. Eren continued laughing, unable to stop from descending into hilarity. The sound of his laugh ringing around the room was contagious, spurring Mikasa to fall with him, laughing together, wrapped in each other’s arms with Lucy held between them. It was the happiest Eren had been all day. And when Eren was happy, Mikasa felt like she could take on the world. 

“Merry Christmas, Eren,” the young woman said, touching her forehead to his. Eren took the opportunity to slip his promise ring out of its box and onto her right hand. It fit perfectly. 

“Merry Christmas, Mikasa.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!!! 
> 
> Feel free to check me out on [tumblr](http://pretty-eyes-jaeger.tumblr.com) as well!


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